The same author has shown that phallin obtained from the juice of the Fly Agaric will kill a guinea-pig weighing 600 grammes in one hour.
As we have already stated, it is the phalline to which the ordinary disorders which mushrooms cause are due. According to Kobert, a 1:250 000 solution of this substance causes an intense hemolysis, with all its disastrous consequences.
According to Pouchet, the flesh of mushrooms must be compared with meat that has been kept for some time to become tender, and it is well known that though this "tendering" process renders the meat more digestible, it may also allow the meat to acquire noxious properties, due to the presence of toxins.
Phallin is the type of those toxic albuminoids of unknown composition which exist in mushrooms, and which are comprised under the name sapotoxins. The intravenous injection of phallin into an animal, in the proportion of 1 part to 1 000 000 parts of body weight, causes sudden death within one minute; in the proportion of 1:5 000 000, death occurs in about three minutes; in the proportion of 1:50 000 000, death also occurs, but is greatly retarded. An injection of 0.0005 Gm. per kilo of body weight of animal causes solution of the blood corpuscles to such an extent that thirty minutes later the blood serum is strongly colored red, as well as the veins.
Instead of being easily altered under the influence of an elevated temperature, as are many of the albuminoid substances, whereby their toxic power is lost, phallin may be boiled for half an hour with water without undergoing any noticeable alteration. Pellegrini has observed that the dried juice of Amanita Phalloides (Death-cup) preserves its properties for more than a year.
According to a recent paper by Gillot, the symptoms of poisoning by mushrooms must be ascribed to albuminoids (phallin and albumose), alkaloids (muscarine, choline, or betaine), or to resinoids (cambogic and agaricic acids).
The alkaloids found in mushrooms are: Muscaridine (an oxyneurine), which possesses considerable toxicity, and of which 0.00005 Gm. suffices to kill a frog; neurine (trimethylethylammonium hydroxide); choline (trimethyloxyethylammonium hydroxide); mycetomuscarine; anhydromuscarine (an oxyneurine); and a whole series of various betaines.
symptomatology.—It is quite natural to divide this symptomatology into three different periods; that of incubation, that of manifestation of symptoms, and that of termination.
The duration of the first period, that of incubation, is exceedingly variable; it very rarely lasts more than forty-eight hours, and becomes general only a few hours after absorption. Certain conditions influence the duration; firstly the quantity of mushrooms ingested, then the manner in which they were prepared; and, to some extent, the nature of the organism, whether child or adult, healthy or in poor health.
When it is a question of the more particularly alkaloid-containing mushrooms, especially when the poisoning is due to muscarine, the toxic symptoms generally develop rapidly, the first symptoms appearing about one hour after the ingestion of the mushrooms. On the other hand, if the poisoning is due to one of the albuminoid group, and particularly in the case of phallin, the period of incubation is longer, and may last ten, twenty, thirty, or even forty-eight hours and more.